In countries with a strong executive dominating the parliament, parliamentary privilege may fail to afford the protection it is meant to provide,547 and it is easy to see why: in such parliaments, the Presiding Officer and parliamentary authorities- generally members of the majority party and often inclined to support its interests - may use their disciplinary powers to the detriment of the opposition, censor opposition members for statements critical of the government, suspend their mandate and even expel them from parliament. If Rules of Procedure (Standing Orders) are not handled impartially, the opposition as such may end up being greatly hampered in effectively carrying out its mandate. Moreover, government-dominated parliaments may sometimes find it difficult to accept opposing views, and there have been cases where all - apparently legal - possibilities were resorted to in order to oust opposition members from parliament. 548 Among the prominent cases is certainly that of the first ever opposition member in the parliament of Singapore, Mr. Joshua B. Jeyaretnam, who was stripped of his parliamentary mandate in 2001 after the then Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and others won a series of defamation proceedings against him, followed by bankruptcy proceedings. The IPU Committee and many other human rights organizations took the view that in making the allegedly offending statements, Mr. Jeyaretnam was exercising his freedom of speech and that, moreover, the sequence and timing of the defamation and bankruptcy proceedings brought against him suggested a clear intention to target him for the purpose of making him a bankrupt and thereby removing him from parliament.549

549 Resolution adopted by the IPU Governing Council at its 170th session (March 2002).

In countries with a strong executive dominating the parliament, parliamentary immunity may fail to afford the protection it is meant to provide, and it is easy to see why: in such parliaments, the Presiding Officer and parliamentary authorities- generally members of the majority party and often inclined to support its interests - may use their disciplinary powers to the detriment of the opposition, censor opposition members for statements critical of the government, suspend their mandate and even expel them from parliament. If Rules of Procedure (Standing Orders) are not handled impartially, the opposition as such may end up being greatly hampered in effectively carrying out its mandate. Moreover, government-dominated parliaments may sometimes find it difficult to accept opposing views, and there have been cases where all - apparently legal - possibilities were resorted to in order to oust opposition members from parliament. Among the prominent cases is certainly that of the first ever opposition member in the parliament of Singapore, Mr. Joshua B. Jeyaretnam, who was stripped of his parliamentary mandate in 2001 after the then Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and others won a series of defamation proceedings against him, followed by bankruptcy proceedings.45 The IPU Committee and many other human rights organizations took the view that in making the allegedly offending statements, Mr. Jeyaretnam was exercising his freedom of speech and that, moreover, the sequence and timing of the defamation and bankruptcy proceedings brought against him suggested a clear intention to target him for the purpose of making him a bankrupt and thereby removing him from parliament.46

45 Members of the parliament of Singapore enjoy only the privilege of freedom of speech; they forfeit their mandate if declared bankrupt.

46 Resolution adopted by the IPU Governing Council at its 170th session (March 2002).